The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: PepactonBurroughs, John
History
The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton
Burroughs, John
Natural history -- Outdoor books
Weeds are great travelers; they are, indeed, the tramps of the
vegetable world. They are going east, west, north, south; they
walk; they fly; they swim; they steal a ride; they travel by rail,
by flood, by wind; they go under ground, and they go above, across
lots, and by the highway. But, like other tramps, they find it
safest by the highway: in the fields they are intercepted and cut
off; but on the public road, every boy, every passing herd of sheep
or cows, gives them a lift. Hence the incursion of a new weed is
generally first noticed along the highway or the railroad. In
Orange County I saw from the car window a field overrun with what I
took to be the branching white mullein. Gray says it is found in
Pennsylvania and at the head of Oneida Lake. Doubtless it had come
by rail from one place or the other. Our botanist says of the
bladder campion, a species of pink, that it has been naturalized
around Boston; but it is now much farther west, and I know fields
along the Hudson overrun with it. Streams and water-courses are
the natural highway of the weeds. Some years ago, and by some
means or other, the viper's bugloss, or blue-weed, which is said to
be a troublesome weed in Virginia, effected a lodgment near the
head of the Esopus Creek, a tributary of the Hudson. From this
point it has made its way down the stream, overrunning its banks
and invading meadows and cultivated fields, and proving a serious
obstacle to the farmer. All the gravelly, sandy margins and
islands of the Esopus, sometimes acres in extent, are in June and
July blue with it, and rye and oats and grass in the near fields
find it a serious competitor for possession of the soil. It has
gone down the Hudson, and is appearing in the fields along its
shores. The tides carry it up the mouths of the streams where it
takes root; the winds, or the birds, or other agencies, in time
give it another lift, so that it is slowly but surely making its
way inland. The bugloss belongs to what may be called beautiful
weeds, despite its rough and bristly stalk. Its flowers are deep
violet-blue, the stamens exserted, as the botanists say, that is,
projected beyond the mouth of the corolla, with showy red anthers.
This bit of red, mingling with the blue of the corolla, gives a
very rich, warm purple hue to the flower, that is especially
pleasing at a little distance. The best thing I know about this
weed besides its good looks is that it yields honey or pollen to
the bee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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